Mission accomplished

The rest of the day at Murray Falls was spent drinking under the tarp, and whinging about the exhaust while rain fell around us. It was a pretty dull day. As dusk fell a load of excitable French backpackers showed up, whooping and hollering as they set up their campsite. Luckily, they were far enough away not to rile me up too much, and by bedtime I could hear nothing… and I’d been drinking.

The next morning we awoke to the same shitty weather and decided that we’d had all we could take from Murray Falls and it was time to move on. 

Standing tall

As we sat under the tarp, eating our breakfast, the French backpackers went on a group morning run, whooping and hollering as they ran. They finished with stair drills, using the path to the swimming hole. It almost made us feel guilty for our lack of movement…almost. After watching them display their youthful exuberance, we started packing away slowly. I think watching them exercise had tired us out a little. We had a lot to pack away and everything was wet, which didn’t make for a fun morning. We were the last to leave, and after all that faffing we decided to finish off with a rainy swim.

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

Our next spot was Etty Bay, a place we’d been told we would definitely see a cassowary. We decided to call into Innisfail first so another “expert” could take a look at the exhaust. The exhaust specialist we found this time told us the exhaust was a little crook, which he thought might be pulling on rubber bracket and could be why it keeps breaking. He also told us we had the wrong gasket and rubber bracket, and he would replace both with the correct types. It only cost $70, so let’s see how this guy’s working knowledge on exhaust systems pans out. As I’m writing this several weeks after the fact, I can confirm, not fucking well.

Exhaust fixed for now, we headed for Etty Bay, hoping to finally see a cassowary. As we drove in we started to contemplate how we were likely to be the only people who visited this place without seeing anything. We needn’t have worried, as we found a juvenile sitting by the road on the way in.

Must-see list complete

With that box ticked we felt we had now seen and done everything on our initial road trip list. So, what the fuck do we do now? We continued into Etty Bay, and found a picturesque little beach with a take-away and campsite. However, the campsite was very small and pretty terrible. Luckily as we were off-season it was reasonably empty. We decided to stay for one night, and hopefully catch a few more sightings of a cassowary. This didn't didn’t take long, as the juvenile we saw on the road in had wandered down to the beach.

Little poser

It wasn’t shy, and although they’re not supposed to be fed, it seemed a little too interested in us to be fully "wild". It took a real liking to Becky's pink iPhone, and as it came in I did shit myself a little. These aren't an animal you’d want to fuck with, even when they’re young.

Sorry, that smell is me.

It was an exciting end to the day, and we got some good photos. You may have noted that I keep referring to it as a juvenile, and I know this as it didn't have the full adult helmet yet (which both males and females have).

Young pretender

Once the excitement was over, we had fish and chips from the kiosk, walked along the beach a bit and then went to bed.

The next morning we spotted an adult cassowary wandering near the campsite. It was early and I hadn’t had a coffee yet, so the photos were terrible and blurred. It didn’t seem that interested in us, so didn’t hang around long enough for me to get a better shot. There were also some bush-stone curlews banging about, so I took a few photos of those. I think we are both going to miss the Australian wildlife terribly.

Not cassowaries

As the campsite was so shit, we decided to head for Wongaling Beach, next to Mission Beach. We stayed here at the start of our journey, just after we were rained in at Tully Gorge. We really liked the campsite, as it was large, had good toilets/showers and even had free wifi. They also had a Woollies supermarket just up the road, rainforest walks and nice beaches. It was everything we wanted.

We started off by doing a short walk through the rainforest. We had done the same walk 10 years earlier, and made the same mistake by forgetting to use the insect repellent, so ended up quickly marching around the walk with 20+ mosquitos following behind, and not getting much enjoyment out of the walk. After all that excitement, we set up camp in a nice shady spot and spent the rest of the day surfing the internet, punctured only by a short walk on the beach. It was pretty great. The next day went much the same way, and we were both having a wonderful time. However, it was all ruined sometime in the arvo thanks to some Europeans showing up. I have moaned a lot about Europeans having no idea about personal space and not really understanding that camping within a few metres of someone may be seen as annoying. This was no different, as a couple and a single chap traveling in two cars decided that 2m from us was the best spot in an otherwise empty field.  Becky was fuming, and still gobsmacked at this. I, on-the-other-hand, had been drinking and while acknowledging their proximity as bothersome, didn’t get as angry.

Europeans do the silliest things

In the sober light of the next day the proximity of the neighbours still didn't bother me as much as Becky. I feel I've reached a sort of zen acceptance that no matter how quiet a campsite, some prick is going to pull up and set up next to us. Besides, we’d snuck a look at the sign-in book and had seen that they were only staying the one night. This feeling of smugness didn't last long, as we went to pay for another night, so did the Europeans... They are certainly trying to test how fucking zen I am. Rather than sit around the campsite letting my new facade crumble, we went for a lovely walk up Clump mountain, and got some fantastic views of the area. It was a tough walk too, and could almost be considered exercise.

All alone.

The Europeans did do us a sort of favour, as we tried to avoided sitting around our campsite as to not be reminded of just how close they were. We wandered along the beach, went for lunch in the village and generally kept ourselves occupied. And of course later I had a drink.

The next day we decided to move on and started packing away. So did the Europeans, and as they were young and had less stuff were much quicker than us. We spent some time enjoying the last of the wifi and then headed to Woolies to get some shopping. As we sat in the Woolies car park we started discussing where we should go next, as it gently started to rain. It was then we realised how much we loved this area and, with the European gone, perhaps we’d made a mistake leaving so early.